The hinges for the rear door bumped under her questing fingers, and a spurt of triumph went through her.
She slid over on her knees to find the middle. If she could use her magic to unlock and ease the door open .
. .
But the doors creaked open, and a shaft of light pierced the gloom. A pale streak told her Ophelia had bolted, disappearing to the gods knew where. Chloe turned her face into the brightness, relief so huge it made her shake coursing through her body. She sent a firebal through the narrow opening, and heard an angry shout on the other side. One door whipped open, and a gun pointed at her face. Shit.
“Are you going to behave, or am I going to have to put you back into the cuffs?”
Blinking away the light, she focused on the man with a familiar, quiet voice. She couldn’t keep her mouth from fal ing open, then it snapped shut on a snarl as welcome rage rol ed over her. Her fists clenched to keep from torching the treacherous asshole. “Peyton.”
“You remember me.” He grasped her upper arm and pul ed her from the van. Every muscle screamed a protest at the quick movement.
“Hard to forget a man who helped torture you.” She jerked away from him, but he held on with disgustingly little effort. His jacket lay in a smoking heap on the cement floor, and she smirked.
“Let’s get moving. Your friends are waiting for you.” He propel ed her across a large loading dock. “We’d have moved you at the same time, but it took quite a few men to handle young Nemov. Someone trained the boy wel .”
“Detective Kingston.” As much as she’d like to fry his nerves with a spel , she managed to stop herself from fol owing through with the thought. He was taking her to Alex and Tess, and acting rashly wouldn’t help any of them. She would need al the magic she could marshal to get them out of this. She refused to consider any other option. They would get out of this. She satisfied her ire by spitting out, “They kil ed him and Agent Caval i, you know. I hope you’re happy, traitor.”
Some emotion flickered in his eyes, but was soon gone, and his face became a smooth mask. “No, I didn’t know. This way, please, Dr. Standish.”
Since she didn’t have a real choice, she let him lead her through a secured door and down a long, brightly lit hal way. It looked like they were in an office building, which was so ordinary it was disconcerting. They passed armed men and women who nodded to Peyton and looked her over like so much prey. She clenched her jaw, lifted her chin, and refused to cower.
They sped up endless floors in an elevator, but there was no dial or buttons to say exactly how many.
Peyton pushed her out to turn into a few interior hal ways, and she lost track of where they’d gone as they wound deeper into the building. The wolf swished a keycard in front of several security panels to get them through a series of doors. She could smel the familiar scent of a laboratory, and her insides twisted tighter.
If they tortured her again, she had no defenses left against tel ing them everything about the formula.
Stepping into a room that was, indeed, equipped as a lab, she wasn’t surprised to see Ivan Nemov standing there with a handful of other Magickals. He looked like hel warmed over, and Chloe couldn’t summon a single scrap of sympathy. He’d sold out her research to terrorists, gotten Damien and his pregnant fiancée murdered, and abandoned his only child. She offered him a baleful stare, and he winced and glanced away.
Toward Alex.
She couldn’t prevent the cry that burst out, and Peyton hauled her closer when she tried to break for Alex.
He was in a cage. And he wasn’t the only one. An unconscious Tess lol ed against the bars in the cage next to him. So many cages. Dozens of wolves were locked into silver dog kennels, some in human form, some in animal form, but there wasn’t enough room to stand up, let alone half-shift. Shredded newspaper on the floors of the cages was the only thing between them and the silver. She winced when a wolf rol ed over and yelped in pain as it brushed the bars.
Her mouth worked for a moment before she could form a coherent sentence through the horror. “What the hel is this?”
“Dr. Nemov’s grand experiment.” A slender man pushed away from the large lab table in the middle of the room. “It’s nice to final y meet you, Dr. Standish. I’ve heard so many good things about your work.”
“Leonard Smith.” She didn’t need his nod of confirmation to know. What startled her was the complete lack of evil in his eyes. A man who’d orchestrated al this should have a face twisted and deformed with malice, but he just looked like a middle manager appropriate to the office building they stood in. She swal owed, pushed away the inane thoughts, and refocused on what was important. “How are so many werewolves missing and no one reported anything?”
She knew before the words were past her lips. These weren’t registered wolves. These were Normals they’d turned into werewolves. Smith’s words rang in her mind again: Dr. Nemov’s grand experiment. Her gaze swung to Ivan. “How could you?”
“For Jaya. For Alex,” he rasped, his Russian accent thickening. Eyes as green as Alex’s met hers. They burned with an intensity that bordered on fanatical. “Our work wasn’t going fast enough. There are too many regulations on our experiments. We were so close to a breakthrough, and it would have stil meant years of verification testing. Years. We’ve already lost so many years. Every month means more of us don’t make the Change; more of us die. I already lost my wife. I won’t lose my son.”
The utter blankness on Alex’s face when she looked at him told her Ivan had already lost his son, whether he was alive or not. Her soul ached for the boy, but she made herself address Smith. “I won’t help you with this. It’s il egal and immoral. Dr. Nemov seems to have forgotten his oaths to medical ethics.”
“I agree with you,” Smith responded with a benign smile. “Ivan’s work is a regrettable means to an end for me, one I don’t relish, but necessity wins out.”
“What end could possibly be worth this? ” She waved a hand at the people caged like mindless animals.
At her godson and her best friend.
“Freedom,” he said simply. “The pack leaders are ineffective. How long did they fail to get this kind of research funded? Instead of granting werewolves a modicum of independence, they sold us out to the vampires, who wil be more than happy to control treatment, to make slavering dogs of our entire race.” He arched an eyebrow and spread his hands. “Deny they despise us, Dr. Standish.”
She licked her lips, swal owed, scrambled for some logic when her mind spewed repulsion. “Vampires despise everyone, but they had the means to pay for the experiments.”
An impatient gesture from Smith stopped anything else she might say. “Werewolves have stood apart too long, hiding behind the wal s of pack lands and the hive-minded obedience of pack law. It’s time to take our own destiny in hand.”
For the most part, she agreed with him. Right up until he got to the part about kil ing people and letting Ivan Change innocent Normals into wolfish lab rats. The terrorist’s face and voice were calm, his manner implacable. There would be no reasoning with this man. He was a hero in his own mind, a savior.
Smith gave her a smile that was almost regretful. “I’m afraid Dr. Nemov has run into a wal with his work.
He needs you to finish the formula.” He paused, waited for her to speak, and arched an eyebrow when she didn’t. “I understand your reticence, truly I do. However, I must have an effective treatment, so you’l understand if I feel the need to build some safeguards into your timeline.”
“Safeguards?” Ivan’s blond brows lifted. Apparently, he wasn’t in on al of Smith’s plans. Chloe braced herself, not knowing how bad it could get, but knowing it was going to be ugly.